Matthew 6:31-33 (NIV) “So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Psalm 23:1 (KJV) “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
In spiritual warfare, either we learn to fight or we get pummeled! There is no neutral ground for Christ-followers. Since it is much more fun to be victorious in this spiritual battle, we’ve got to learn to use the word of God as a weapon. Scripture memorization is good; it’s just not enough to win the fights that we encounter with the evil one. We must go beyond memorization to application in the heat of the battle. This week the Lord gave me these two verses from Matthew and Psalms as my weapons in the fight. I have had these verses memorized for at least 30 years; however, I didn’t realize that they could be used as weapons until this week. They have been great encouragement for me in my relationship with the Lord – just not weapons.
So this is how it works. When the evil one comes at me with lies about the things I need to have or the opportunities I need to take because I have a right to them, I speak Psalm 23:1 out loud. “The Lord is MY shepherd, I shall not want.” I emphasize the “MY” because that reinforces in my mind that my Lord has always got my best interests in mind. When the evil one lobs deceptive thinking of temptation at me, I speak out loud, “I seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and HE gives me everything I need.” I personalize it because Jesus has changed my nature to be one that honors him, and I remind myself of whom he has made me to be.
When David went to fight Goliath, Saul tried to get him to use his armor and sword, but David refused to use them because he wasn’t used to them. Likewise, we have the sword of truth, and within the word of God there are passages which have special uses for each of us depending on how God has made us, what our weaknesses are and what circumstances we find ourselves in. We must interact with the Lord and his word to find out which weapons or which scripture passages we need to pick up and get good at using. We must become so used to using these verses that in the heat of battle those verses are what come out of our mouths. So, stop using the word of God for show and start preparing for battle.
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